The present invention generally relates to a high-density mounting storage apparatus housing numerous memory mediums in a cabinet, and in particular relates to a storage apparatus having a configuration for improving the cooling capability in the cabinet.
Generally speaking, a portion of the power supplied to a hard disk drive in an electronic apparatus is converted into frictional heat caused by the rotation of the hard disk or resistance heat of an electronic circuit. With a storage apparatus having a plurality of hard disk drives arranged in an array, the denser these hard disk drives are mounted, the higher the heating value. Thus, while the storage apparatus is being operated, it is necessary to cool the hard disk drives and electronic circuits in the storage apparatus.
In recent years, as represented by a large storage apparatus configured with a RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) system, for instance, the storage capacity of storage apparatuses is of an increasing trend. In other words, the number of hard disk drives mounted on the storage apparatus is increasing, which means that the mounting density of the hard disk drives is increasing.
As a result of this high-density mounting, the power consumption and heating value of storage apparatuses are ever increasing. As a measure against such heat generation, although a fan for introducing external air into the storage apparatus is being enlarged, resistance against the circulation of external air in the storage apparatus is significant due to the high-density mounting of the hard disk drives, and an effect of sufficiently cooling the inside of the storage apparatus has not yet been achieved. Thus, there is no choice but to enlarge the fan even further, which results in distracting noise caused by the fan, and the electricity consumption for operating the fan will also increase.
Conventionally, as a magnetic disk device having this kind of cooling system, as described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. H8-273345, proposed is a magnetic disk device configured by including in a single apparatus cabinet a plurality of magnetic disk drives for magnetically storing information, a control circuit board mounted with a control circuit for controlling such magnetic disk drives, and a ventilation means for cooling the magnetic disk drives and control circuit board with air cooling, wherein the magnetic disk drives, control circuit board and ventilation means are retained in a frame to configure a single disk box, and a plurality of such disk boxes are housed in a single apparatus cabinet.
Further, Japanese Patent Application No. 2006-83445 introduces a storage apparatus comprising a plurality of cooling areas, an external air introduction/exhaust device for guiding external air to the respective cooling areas and subsequently discharging the external air from the exhaust area of the cabinet to the outside of the cabinet, and an external air guidance area for guiding the external air that passed through the respective cooling areas to the exhaust area. The external air guidance area is configured so that the external air that passed through one cooling area will not get mixed with the external air that passed through another cooling area.